Europa League Preview: Liverpool V Benfica
It’s fair to say that Liverpool fans were up in arms following their side’s early elimination from the glorious, money-spinning Champions League.
Woe betide a team of Liverpool’s stature reduced to playing in the minor Europa League competition, pah! The Scouse following have now had a while to get used to this indignity, yet their snobbish attitude towards the tournament was dealt a blow in the first leg of the quarter-finals. Any feelings that this was a substandard contest they were going to walk fluttered out the window following a 2-1 defeat to Benfica at the Stadium of Light.
It is of course the last chance of silverware on Merseyside this season, the league form never got going, they went out the Carling Cup early doors and they were spectacular dumped out of the FA Cup by Reading. Benfica can take heart from the Royals performance that fateful day in January. The boys from Berkshire made a mockery of Anfield’s fortress-like status and breached it with a bunch of kids and free transfers. Tonight Benfica go to Liverpool as the underdogs and will be hoping for a similar result.
The first leg was turned on its head following the sending off of Ryan Bable. The Dutch midfielder was sent from the field of play for a comical head-push that had all the aggression of an agoraphobic mouse. Benfica must have thought that Bable's inclusion was an April Fool’s Day joke given the date, the blundering winger has looked nothing short of awful all season and when Liverpool are splashing out £11.5million on players of his calibre it’s no surprise they have struggled.
To be fair to Rafa Benitez’s charges, they looked the better team on the night until the red card. Daniel Agger gave the away team the perfect start when he beautifully flicked in Steven Gerrard’s snazzy free-kick. They say bad things come in three’s and unfortunately for Liverpool that’s what happened next. Bable was off for his idiotic shove and then two Argentinians, Emiliano Insua and Pablo Aimar, tangled in the Liverpool penalty area, giving the referee no option but to point to the spot. Reliable striker Oscar Cardozo dispatch the penalty with ease before repeating the feat 11 minutes from time after Jamie Carragher was judged to handled the effervescent Angel Di Maria’s cross, thus completing Liverpool’s hat-trick of misery.
For the return leg Liverpool need to stop the threat of Di Maria, the Argentinian ran the show in the first leg and is the latest from the South American nation’s production line of absurdly skilful players. Benfica play some great stuff on the break and pose a threat with Amir pulling the strings and creating chances for the likes of Cardoza, Di Maria and Javier Saviola. They also have the old warhorse Nuno Gomes on the bench and the Portuguese legend is always handy when you need to plunder a goal or two.
As for Liverpool they are at full strength, obviously without the suspended Bable. You know with Liverpool that they are only at their best when Gerrard and Fernando Torres are on form and they will need a big performance from their talismanic duo tonight. Gerrard has cut a forlorn figure for most of the season. He has been pretty poor to be honest and he faces a big test when he comes up against Javi Garcia who is the midfield general for Benfica. As for Torres the girly-haired Spaniard has had a stop-start season with injuries but he has still grabbed 20 goals in all competitions such is the stature of the man. His brace against Lille saw Liverpool through and they will need him to hit the net again tonight; however Benfica will be well aware that if you stop Torres, you stop Liverpool.
For the majority of the season Liverpool have looked flat, like a team of mercenaries with no passion, this is their last chance of winning anything and if they can’t muster a gutsy performance tonight they will need to call out the cardiologist to check they’ve still got hearts. Liverpool fans will be desperate to forget the 2009/10 season; they have woefully underperformed as the rest of the big four left them in their dust. A clean out and big money signings will probably be the order of the day in the summer, but for now the Europa League needs to be where they concentrate all their efforts.
This match could go either way and if Benfica bring their top game and force Liverpool to play on the front foot it could be a decent spectacle. The Reds will take some comfort in their away goal, but as Manchester United found out last night against Bayern Munich, it can work against you as well. Most likely it will be a tight game and a 1-0 victory to someone is a fairly likely outcome, the most likely source for the goal you’d have to say would be Torres.
So all Liverpool’s hopes for 2009/10 rest on this game, it’s do or die for the Anfield boys. Failure to win a cup ranks as a bad campaign on Merseyside, Benfica will be doing their upmost to make this happen.
Defeat tonight and it will be Portugal she wrote for Liverpool’s season.
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